The 0.2% growth in the first quarter marks the slowest growth since the beginning of 2016, the ONS said.

The slowdown in the British economy in the quarter was largely driven by a drop-off in the dominant services sector, the ONS said.

"UK GDP growth slowed to 0.2% in Quarter 1 2017 as consumer facing industries such as retail and accommodation fell and household spending slowed. This was partly due to rising prices. Construction and manufacturing also showed little growth, while business services & finance continued to grow strongly," it said.

"Once again the services industries contributed by far the most to the headline growth rate, increasing by 0.2% in Quarter 1 2017 although this is more subdued than in recent periods," the ONS said.

"The growth was focused in the business services and finance, and government and other services industrial groups, but there was a slow-down in growth in consumer-focused industries, such as retail sales and accommodation. Within the services industries, two of the four main sectors decreased in Quarter 1 2017; distribution, hotels and restaurants, and transport, storage and communications.

"These negative growths were more than offset by positive growths in the business services and finance, and government and other services sectors."

Here is the ONS' chart showing the quarterly growth trend:

ONS

Until the beginning of 2017, the UK economy fared better than all but the most optimistic of forecasters imagined in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum, confounding predictions of an immediate recession, and virtually ignoring any uncertainty over the future.

However, as the falling pound has pushed up inflation in recent months, regular Brits have started to feel the pinch, spending less, and slowing the consumer boom that has fuelled the country's economic performance in the past handful of years.

As Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics noted soon after the release (emphasis ours):

"The new expenditure breakdown of GDP shows that sterling's depreciation has had an overall negative impact on the economy's performance. Households' real spending increased by just 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in Q1—the smallest increase since Q4 2014—as the import-led surge in inflation eroded spending power."

"This is going to be a more challenging time for British households over the course of this year, real income growth — to use our terminology — will be negative. To use theirs [layman's] wages won't keep up with prices for the goods and services they consume."

Deutsche Bank is also concerned, with UK strategist Oliver Harvey and chief economist Mark Wall writing on Wednesday: "In the short term, most reliable indicators of household spending point to a sharp slowdown."

It should be noted that these figures are just the second of three estimates from the ONS and could be revised higher or lower. A third estimate will be released during June. However, revisions at the second estimate are rare, with this being just the second time in more than 4 years that growth has been lowered between the first and second estimates.